1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to clothing and more particularly pertains a new and improved shirt which is designed to concealingly retain the rear portion of a necktie.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of necktie restraining means on shirts is well known in the prior art. This is evidenced by the granting of a number of patents relating to various functional and structural aspects of necktie restraining devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,730, which issued to Townsend on Aug. 17, 1993, discloses a conventional and typical concealed necktie holding device. In this respect, the device consists of a small clamp which is attachable to the tail portion of a necktie, and a small chain leads from the clamp to a cross member which is positionable through a shirt button hole. In effect, this device prevents the tail portion of a necktie from becoming unattractively visible. As can be appreciated, this device is manufactured and sold separately from the shirt and tie.
Another example of a tie restraining device is to found in U.S. Pat. 5,216,785 which issued to Graef on Jun. 8, 1993. The tie fastener shown in this patent consists of three strips of flexible material joined together at one end. Each strip is identical to the others, with an inner strip being buttoned to a shirt and an outer strip being fed through the loop label of the tie. An intermediate strip is interposed between the inner and outer strips and serves to cover a shirt button and prevent the loop label of the tie from catching on the button. This fastener is designed to hold the complete tie assembly in juxtaposition to a shirt with the tail of the tie being retained by the loop label positioned behind the front visible portion of the tie. While being operable for its intended purpose, this device is also manufactured and sold separately from the shirt and its associated tie.
While each of these prior art patents disclose devices which fulfill their respective particular objectives and requirements, and are most likely quite functional for their intended purposes, it will be noticed that none of these patents disclose a necktie restraining means which is integrally or otherwise fixedly secured to a shirt in a permanent manner, whereby there is no requirement to purchase and then subsequently locate, when needed, a device for concealingly retaining the tail portion of a necktie in an attractive manner. As such, there apparently still exists a need for improvements in necktie restraining devices to the extent that a shirt itself could operate to hold a tie in a desired position without the use of separate independent hardware and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.